Welcome to the second season of “The Newsroom,” Aaron Sorkin’s drama about how he wishes the media had covered the news. The season picks up a year after the first season ended, covering August 2011-November 2012 and touches upon the government’s antiterrorism policies, Occupy Wall Street, Troy David, Trayvon Martin, Benghazi and obviously the primaries and general election. These stories are woven into the big mystery of the season: Genoa.

The episode, which lays the foundation for the second season, begins with Will, Maggie and Mackenzie prepare to give depositions to $1500-an-hour lawyer Rebecca Halliday and we see a flashback to August 23-24, 2011. The big questions are: What is Genoa? What is this lawsuit? How did it come about? Why is the “News Night” team in such deep trouble?

Halliday is a First Amendment lawyer and her job is to make sure that, under the stress of a deposition and cross-examination, none of the “News Night” team says the wrong thing. What IS the wrong thing?

Let’s find out.

“News Night” anchor Will McAvoy is being questioned by Halliday about Genoa. Despite being asked by the Department of Defense to not run the Genoa story,– the details of which are going to unfold throughout the season–the network did so anyway. Then it had to retract the story. (According to the HBO press release, “a mysterious tip has led to the airing of a story with consequences no one could have anticipated.”). If the “News Night” team doesn’t win the lawsuit, according to Halliday, “No one responsible for the broadcast will ever work again.”

Maggie Jordan is sporting a short, red hairdo, or as Halliday puts it, looking like “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” She’s MUCH different than she was a year ago. Maggie is an associate producer on “News Night.” Will explains Maggie went to Uganda where things got very real, very fast and as a result she came back all messed up. As Maggie’s story unfolds this season, we’re going to see her world slowly fall apart.

But first, the deposition:

“Fourteen months ago you went on the air and called the Tea Party the ‘American Taliban’” – Halliday

“I did.” – Will

“And?” – Halliday

“The Taliban resented it.” – Will

For those of you who don’t remember or didn’t watch, the Season One finale featured an intense attack on the Tea Party (yes, Will is a “moderate” Republican, but Aaron Sorkin is not. Will is concerned that is political party is being “high-jacked” by the Tea Party). In what was supposed to be a NEWS report, Will interjected his own objections to the Tea Party movement and called the Tea Party’s members “The American Taliban.” Needless to say, the fallout was huge.

Let’s go to the videotape:

For starters, Reese Lansing, president of ACN and son of owner Leona, got kicked out of a meeting at the of the Capitol Building on SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), since three members of the House Judiciary committee are members of the Tea Party. Nobody was happy about that.

This episode takes place August 23, 2011, and Will anchors a story about how the rebels took Tripoli, Libya. During the broadcast, Mackenzie McHale (the executive producer of “News Night,” the news program Will anchors, and Will’s ex-girlfriend — she cheated on him) and her senior producer Jim Harper realize they have to change a part of a piece on Dominque Strauss-Kahn because the network’s report says that Strauss-Kahn is being charged with a 2003 attempted rape—but he’s only being investigated for it. They have to do a quick voice over to make sure the story isn’t slander.

After that near-disaster Sorkin lays the groundwork for Jim’s storyline: Mackenzie learns from Charlie Skinner, the director of the news division of the network and therefore the boss, that the reporter covering Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney broke his ankle while partying after-hours. The network needs to send someone on the road for a few weeks.

What a surprise – Maggie and Don Keefer (Will’s former executive producer and current executive producer of “Right Now With Elliot Hirsch” and collaborator with “News Night”) are (somehow) still together. (Don and Maggie had a rocky relationship for most of Season One. Maggie and Jim had crushes on each other but never did anything about it. When they finally admitted their feelings to each other and were supposed to go home to breakup with their significant others, Don instead asked Maggie to move in with him and Jim was left in the dust). Maggie tries to talk to Jim, but it’s brutally awkward. She wants things to go back to the way they were, but Jim isn’t interested. “It’s always awkward, that’s the way things were.” Jim tells her the conversation is inappropriate and things are only awkward because she wants them to be. Hell hath no fury like a man scorned! So Jim decides to go to New Hampshire to cover Romney. Mackenzie thinks he’s crazy and he finally shouts “Fire me or send me to New Hampshire!”

As a result we meet Jerry Dantana, from the D.C. bureau: Jim’s temporary replacement.

We get some great banter between Charlie and senior financial reporter Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn). She is not only the commissioner of the fantasy football league, but was also class treasurer, reads stock quotes and “makes nerds look good.”

Will’s “American Taliban” remark has more consequences: Charlie pulls him from the coverage of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. They are going to be “officially condemned” on the House floor and advertisers are pulling out. Charlie tells Will to get the flu around the 9th or 10th. “I didn’t know you were going to say it but I was happy when you did,” Charlie consoles Will. In the middle of the night Mackenzie calls to check on Will, who is technically taking this news better than he took most news last season. The familiarity between the two ex-lovers isn’t lost, but he’s still not letting her back in.

Jim’s first day as a reporter-on-the-road-trying-to-get-onto-Romney’s-bus isn’t going well. In fact, despite there being 40 empty seats on the bus, he’s told he has to drive his own car because the campaign wasn’t happy about the “American Taliban/Tea Party” comment. Ouch. Welcome to the road, Jim.

Meanwhile, Jerry is getting acclimated to Will, which viewers know can take a while. Jerry wants the network to cover the administration’s antiterrorism policies. “It’s actually not a good time for me,” Will says. “But that go-getter initiative you have? I’m not crazy about that either.”

“Do you want to lead or do you want to follow?” Jerry asks. “He wants to follow,” Mackenzie says. “And barely that,” Will chimes in.

Sloan barges in about the latest drone strike; she has been pushing for more coverage about how the government finds and kills terrorists as well. Sloan wants to ask “Did we kill any civilians?” Jerry wants to know “How does Pakistan feel about us invading their air space to kill people occasionally?” Good, so it’s settled. Jerry won’t even use Jim’s usual sources, he’ll use his own. They’re going to have a panel!

Will’s parting comment to Sloan: “Keep your eye on Jerry for me, I think he wants to win a Peabody.”

At the morning’s news meeting “News Night” blogger Neal Sampat brings up “Occupy Wall Street,” calling it the next Arab Spring. (Exaggerating a little bit, don’t you think?). Mackenzie isn’t impressed and tells him that he has to wait until something’s real. Still, she tells him to go to the next general assembly meeting and he’s pumped.

The drone panel on the evening show is a train wreck. Sloan is on it and is really keyed up about the collateral damage, “legality and morality” of drone strikes. Sloan really knows her stuff. Jerry’s guy on the panel says there’s no ethical dilemma because America should be pursuing terrorists with everything it has. “Drones are the safest form of legal action against terrorist targets, period.” Mackenzie is in Will’s earpiece, urging him to ask about the AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists) but Will ignores her and lets the guy rant. Mackenzie takes her annoyance out on Jerry, telling him “Will’s not the problem, the panel is. Use Jim’s guys.”

Jerry’s guy really wants to be asked back but Jerry says it’s not up to him. So the guy plays his final card: “I’m going to give you a story but you have to use me to follow it.” It’s a story that “makes careers and ends presidencies.” It’s about a black op called “Genoa.” (This sounds like something from “Call of Duty.”). And viewers get their first piece of the Genoa puzzle.

(According to “New Players,” a four-minute intro on HBO On Demand, Jerry is “not the favorite son” and he wants nothing more than to score a big story while Jim is in New Hampshire. As Sorkin says during this promo, Jerry “scores a huge story, it’s just one that goes terribly wrong.”).

Mackenzie shoves Will against the wall after the show is over. “I agreed with everything he said,” Will says. “How about the way he said it?” Mackenzie questions. Will also went to break 41 seconds early. Will, way to let your bias affect the coverage.

Neal goes to the Occupy Wall Street general meeting WEARING HIS PRESS CREDENTIALS and obviously nobody wants him there. So he just asks why they wouldn’t want to get the word out about what they’re doing. “We do but we don’t need your help to do it,” he’s told. Or, the mature answer “We do, but we want to make sure our message is clear before it’s distorted by the press.” Fair enough. Neal makes friends with a member of the movement: Shelly Wexler. She stresses that Occupy Wall Street is nonviolent. The members of the movement are going to set up tents until their demands are met: the persecution of the people responsible for the financial crash, a presidential commission to investigate corruption in politics, the ratification of a Constitutional amendment. Occupy Wall Street believes in a horizontal structure. Neal says they can’t have a protest unless the media covers it.

Sorkin clearly has a problem with the most recent market crash and he voices it through Shelly. “Where was Will McAvoy when Goldman Sachs sold its clients mortgage-related securities without disclosing that the hedge-fund manager who chose the mortgages was betting on them to fail? Or when Citigroup sold its clients mortgage funds it knew would fail so the banks could bet against its customers? Citigroup made $160 million off its investors losing $700 million.” Shelly doesn’t trust Neal’s network to get a story “anywhere near close to right.” Neal says he wants this to succeed and he gives her his card. He advises her to go back to one clear message, she tells him to bring it up at the next meeting.

Back at the studio, Sloan is filling in for Elliot Hirsh and talks about how America’s elementary school children can’t name the first president, the century the Civil War was fought in, or one of the Bill of Rights. (But I’m sure everyone reading this recap can!). And things are still awkward between Don and Sloan too! Clearly “News Night” is the place to have a healthy, fulfilling relationship! See: Don/Maggie, Don/Sloan, Maggie/Jim, Mackenzie/Will. Sloan nicely recaps the debacle between her and Don “When you asked me why I was single and I said it was because you hadn’t asked me out, I thought it was my last day. Honestly, it just sounded like a good line. I hardly ever land those.” Don says he took it as a joke as he heads home to Maggie. After all, he has a streak of 13 days of being a good boyfriend.

We cut to Don at the apartment, grabbing some clothes so he can go to the Sheraton on 7th Avenue. He tells Maggie she can move back into her old place. Why? Because Don finally saw the YouTube video (entitled “Another New Yorker Loses It”) where Maggie basically declares her love for Jim (which played a big part in last season’s finale). Maggie tells Don that this isn’t what it looks like, but Don just laughs. Don says, “I spent this whole time thinking I was a bad guy for not being in love with you, but it turns out…” but Maggie cuts him off. Don knows Jim was on the bus and heard it all. Don was nice enough to not tell Lisa about the video (Jim was dating Lisa, Maggie’s roommate, at the time). For once, Don isn’t the jerk in this scenario, for once. Now we see what kind of place Maggie is in and maybe her new look isn’t so much of a mystery anymore.

Mackenzie meets Will at a bar and says she wants to pursue drones. Will finally admits that he’s “flipping out” about being pulled off the 9/11 anniversary coverage. Will goes on a tirade about how Roger Daltery is singing “You better, you better, you bet,” in his head. “It’s Pete Townsend,” Mackenzie tells him. “Townsend wrote the song, Daltery’s singing it,” Will corrects himself. Again, their banter is cute but nothing has changed between these two, has it? Their exchange isn’t filled with animosity on Will’s part, so that’s something. Will wants to know when Jim comes back. “In a couple of weeks,” she says. “Oh, what could possibly happen in a couple of weeks?” And that is the million-dollar question of the season.

As they finish their drinks, Mackenzie won’t let AUMF go. “I’ve never seen you leave a rebuttal that fat on the table,” she says. “Don’t do it again.” After saying she can pay for her own drinks, she admits she left her purse in the office, so not only does Will have to pay for the drinks, but also her cab ride home and back to the office the next morning. In a hilarious sequence, Will hands Mackenzie his wallet and she takes several $20’s out of it.

We come back to the present and now Mackenzie is talking with Rebecca Halliday. Mackenzie points out the chain of events: If the Romney reporter hadn’t broken his ankle, if Jim hadn’t gone to cover Romney, if Jerry hadn’t come to New York, if the panel had Jim’s guy instead of Jerry’s guy, “if I’d caught it before instead of after…” Mackenzie says nobody believed Genoa at first. “It was impossible to believe. But piece-by-piece the evidence started coming in and suddenly it was impossible to deny. It was the biggest thing any of us had ever touched, including Charlie. It was the Pentagon Papers and we were the only ones who had it.”

Mackenzie goes on to say the show averages about 1.5 million viewers and Genoa got 5.5 million. It was the most viewed program in the history of cable news.” Mackenzie says that Will is worried that he got her in trouble, and for a guy who wants to be liked by his audience, “he lets us put his life in danger a lot.”

We know this is really bad when Mackenzie asks Halliday how much she costs. “$1500 an hour” she says. As Mackenzie starts her deposition the first notes of “You Better You Bet” play and we see Will and Maggie sitting in the hallway, waiting.